Kavi Ramburn (pictured) and Marcos Ramos' Davis Project for Peace will use soccer to address homophobia in Brazil during the World Cup this summer.

Davis Peace Project to address homophobic barriers

March 19, 2014

Marcos Ramos ’14 and Kavi Ramburn ’14 are winners of a Davis Project for Peace, which grants $10,000 awards for international humanitarian projects initiated by college students.

Their project is entitled “Navigating Discourses of Sexuality: Resistance to Homophobia in Brazil” and will involve workshops targeted at 15- to 20-year-olds in Sao Paulo, where Brazilian youth have been particularly affected by homophobic attacks. The workshops aim to reduce the attacks by raising awareness.

Ramos, a sociology/anthropology and international studies double major, says he has been thinking about the project for a couple of years and finally decided to make it happen.

“I decided to invite Kavi because of his wonderful skills in management and his experience and commitment to social justice,” Ramos says. Ramburn is an economics and international studies double major.

The project proposes four weeklong programs for 30 participants each week. The programs will incorporate workshops, lectures and discussions. The third day of each program will focus on soccer and developing awareness of homophobia in sports.

“The project will take place at a critical moment for Brazil, a time when the world’s eyes will be turned toward the South American giant for the World Cup,” Ramos and Ramburn state in their proposal.

“Since the whole world will be watching Brazil, it is a crucial moment to carry out such a project as ours,” Ramos explains.

In addition to the $10,000 Davis Peace Project funding, Ramos and Ramburn have secured an additional $7,780 to help finance the project. Their budget includes $500 for future workshops, which will be carried out by youth who attend their workshops this summer.

Ramos and Ramburn will be working with a third colleague, Elisabeth Maria da Silva, a local counselor who will help in recruiting participants and helpers.

Now in its seventh year, the Davis Projects for Peace program is an opportunity for undergraduates at the American colleges and universities in the Davis United World College Scholars Program to design grassroots peace projects. Each year 100 projects are funded at $10,000 each. The objective is to encourage and support today’s motivated youth to create and try out ideas for building peace.

The Davis Projects for Peace were created by the late Kathryn Wasserman Davis, an accomplished internationalist and philanthropist who died last April at 106 years old.

Earlham College, an independent, residential college, aspires to provide the highest-quality undergraduate education in the liberal arts, including the sciences, shaped by the distinctive perspectives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).